https://phys.org/science-news/education en-us Phys.org provides latest news on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education Private philanthropy has long been a key source of funding for U.S. scientists, particularly as government support has failed to keep pace with the rising cost of research. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-reveals-complex-dynamics-philanthropic-funding.html Economics & Business Education Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:37:05 EDT news637245421 Medical research is increasingly informed by recognition of diversity's key role in addressing health equity. But when it comes to medical education, there's a group that has remained not just underrepresented but also under-researched: first-generation (first-gen) medical students—those whose parents have not earned bachelor's degrees. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-generation-medical-students-unique.html Education Thu, 16 May 2024 16:33:31 EDT news635096008 Early education programs are widely believed to be effective public investments for helping children succeed in school and for reducing income- and race-based achievement gaps. However, a new study conducted by a team of investigators from Teachers College, Columbia University, University of Virginia, University of California-Irvine, and the University of Delaware finds mixed evidence on the long-term effectiveness of today's preschool programs for helping children succeed in school. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-reveals-varied-impact-preschool-term.html Education Thu, 02 May 2024 14:00:01 EDT news633857882 A team of researchers from the University of Cologne and the University of Würzburg have found in training studies that the distinction between known and unknown words can be trained and leads to more efficient reading. Recognizing words is necessary to understand the meaning of a text. When we read, we move our eyes very efficiently and quickly from word to word. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-brain-efficient.html Education Thu, 18 Apr 2024 11:34:32 EDT news632658869 Knowing your ABCs is essential to academic success, but having a last name starting with A, B or C might also help make the grade. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-grades-students-surnames-alphabetical.html Social Sciences Education Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:02:04 EDT news632588520 If you've ever been taught about how Earth orbits around the sun, you might well think our planet travels along an oval-shaped path that brings it much closer to the sun at some times of the year than at others. You'd have a good reason to think that, too: it's how most textbooks show things. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-earth-sun-bike-wheel-high.html Education Mon, 08 Apr 2024 12:58:17 EDT news631799894 A team of researchers from the University of Lisbon and Cornell University has presented a touch-based robot that is capable of fostering inclusion in schools, giving equal opportunities to children with and without visual impairment to participate in a group activity with the robot. Their most recent study showed improved individual and group participation perception, which contributes to creating more inclusive learning environments. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-touchibo-robot-fosters-inclusion.html Education Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:50:47 EDT news631536644 Want your teen to graduate from college one day? Focus on strengthening their social networks within and beyond the family, says a new BYU study. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-money-family-community-bonds-prep.html Social Sciences Education Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:05:03 EDT news631533901 Online learning has become "the new normal" of education since COVID-19 severely disrupted face-to-face teaching activities. Researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have conducted a study to analyze whether and how the instructor's presence in online video lectures affected student learning and learning outcomes. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-reveals-significant-effects-onscreen-instructors.html Education Mon, 25 Mar 2024 10:23:31 EDT news630581006 For the first time in history, a single language dominates global scientific communication. But the actual production of knowledge continues to be a multilingual enterprise. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-prestigious-journals-hard-scientists-dont.html Social Sciences Education Sat, 23 Mar 2024 10:30:01 EDT news630322167 A team of researchers with varied backgrounds has found that using X (formerly Twitter) as a means to increase citations on research papers has little impact. In their study, published on the open-access site PLOS ONE, the group compared the number of citations for papers that had been promoted on X and those that had not. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-twitterx-impact-citations.html Social Sciences Education Fri, 22 Mar 2024 10:30:01 EDT news630319822 A professor and a complex systems researcher at the University of Sydney has found, through the use of a quantitative measurement statistical tool, that instances of gender and racial discrimination occur in leadership positions at Australia's most influential universities. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-gender-racial-discrimination-uncovered-leadership.html Social Sciences Education Fri, 15 Mar 2024 11:49:35 EDT news629722172 A trio of researchers, one a sociologist at Princeton University, the other two public policy experts with the University of Michigan, has found that children living in Flint, Michigan, experienced educational declines after that city changed its water delivery system in 2015, regardless of whether they lived in homes with lead pipe delivery systems. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-children-flint-experienced-declines-pipes.html Social Sciences Education Thu, 14 Mar 2024 10:50:01 EDT news629626689 Widespread ownership of modern smartphones could make for more accessible—and equitable—microscopy in many elementary and middle school classrooms. According to University of Georgia research, iPhone cameras can serve as adequate alternatives to traditional grade-school optical microscopes when paired with more cost-efficient magnification devices. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-iphones-microscopes-early-stem.html Education Thu, 14 Mar 2024 09:59:28 EDT news629629163 A new analysis of 5.8 million Americans finds that earning a college degree is still a sound investment, although the rate of economic return varies across college majors and student demographics. The findings come as skepticism continues to grow over the value of a degree in the face of rising college costs, a decline in college enrollment, and a transforming economy. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-college-degree-investment-tuition.html Economics & Business Education Tue, 12 Mar 2024 09:00:08 EDT news629452806 An Institute for Systems Biology (ISB)-led study has unveiled important insights and actionable protocols into providing equitable STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) experiences for high school students from historically marginalized communities. The research highlights the transformative power of informal STEM learning in addressing societal challenges and the ease with which many organizations could provide these important opportunities. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-unveils-effective-stem-high-school.html Education Fri, 08 Mar 2024 11:59:15 EST news629121550 Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely heralded for its potential to enhance productivity in scientific research. But with that promise come risks that could narrow scientists' ability to better understand the world, according to a new paper co-authored by a Yale anthropologist. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-ai.html Social Sciences Education Fri, 08 Mar 2024 09:27:26 EST news629112441 From smart virtual assistants and self-driving cars to digital health and fraud prevention systems, AI technology is transforming almost every aspect of our daily lives—and education is no different. For all its promise, the rise of AI, like any new technology, raises some pressing ethical and equity questions. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-robot-friend-ai-accessible.html Education Fri, 23 Feb 2024 13:21:57 EST news627916913 Student enrollment in districts that provided in-person schooling in fall 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic showed a greater decline among nonwhite students than white students. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-reveals-racial-disparities-school-enrollment.html Social Sciences Education Fri, 23 Feb 2024 09:08:06 EST news627901681 The teaching of science has long generated controversy in the United States—from evolution in the early 20th century to climate change today. Debates have also often emerged around how textbooks teach concepts related to social groups, and in particular whether they gloss over complex realities in ways that may mislead students in providing scientific instruction. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-biology-textbooks-students-comprehensive-view.html Education Thu, 22 Feb 2024 14:00:01 EST news627815431 Research suggests that reading on screens is a less effective way to absorb and retain information than reading the old-fashioned way, but why? And when so many of us are noticing shortening attention spans, how do we learn to concentrate on books again? https://phys.org/news/2024-02-screens-paper-effective-absorb-retain.html Social Sciences Education Tue, 06 Feb 2024 10:50:28 EST news626439024 In a study of nearly 5,000 North American first-year college students, those who were more extroverted, more agreeable, or less neurotic were more likely to feel a greater sense of belonging at school. Alexandria Stubblebine, an independent researcher in Ocala, Florida, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-personality-traits-linked-college-students.html Social Sciences Education Wed, 17 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news624709982 Until the early morning of February 24, 2022, Ukrainian scientist Olena Iarmosh did not believe there would be a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Iarmosh grew up and had settled in Kharkiv, her beloved city in Eastern Ukraine and only 40 km away from the Russian border, where she worked for more than 16 years as a lecturer in higher education before fleeing to Switzerland. At approximately 5 a.m., she awoke to the sounds of bombing, hoping that they were merely the loud sounds of technical maintenance at the local power plant. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-ukraine-lost-scientists-due-war.html Social Sciences Education Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:00:01 EST news621530568 North Carolina State University researchers have developed a weeklong high school curriculum that helps students quickly grasp concepts in both color chemistry and artificial intelligence—while sparking their curiosity about science and the world around them. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-high-school-curriculum-chemistry-ai.html Education Thu, 07 Dec 2023 16:04:10 EST news621187447 Remote teams are less likely to make breakthrough discoveries compared to those who work onsite, according to research led by the universities of Oxford and Pittsburgh into the rise of remote collaborations among scientists and inventors across the world. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-remote-collaborations-scientific-breakthroughs-co-led.html Economics & Business Education Wed, 29 Nov 2023 11:00:01 EST news620476408 New research from the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center suggests that Ph.D. graduates in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) in the U.S. who became disabled before age 25 earn $14,360 less per year in academia than those without disabilities. They are also underrepresented at higher faculty levels (such as deans and presidents) and in tenured positions. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-phd-disabilities-underpaid-underrepresented-academia.html Economics & Business Education Mon, 27 Nov 2023 16:07:03 EST news620323621 Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Loyola University have discovered that personality does not seem to have much influence when it comes to choosing social friendships at school, which are based more on the closeness of our contacts, according to a study recently published in the journal PNAS. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-people-friendships-school.html Social Sciences Education Mon, 27 Nov 2023 12:44:00 EST news620311437 A new study shows that female academics are significantly underrepresented in winning academic prizes and having awards named after them. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-female-academics-prizes-award-woman.html Social Sciences Education Tue, 21 Nov 2023 16:26:31 EST news619806390 An analysis of 5.8 million authors across all scientific disciplines shows that the gender gap is closing, but there is still a long distance to go. The new research by John Ioannidis of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICs) at Stanford University, US, and colleagues, was published Nov. 21 in the journal PLOS Biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-most-cited-scientists-men-gender-gap.html Social Sciences Education Tue, 21 Nov 2023 14:00:02 EST news619778116 Success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) demands keeping up with the latest tools and techniques. The AI boom, for example, has made coding and data management skills integral. But going back to school isn't an option for most scientists. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-framework-aims-short-stem-effective.html Education Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:30:29 EST news619785026